Irish Distillers recently announced that as part of its sustainability and responsibility roadmap, all the secondary packaging across its portfolio of Irish whiskeys will be recyclable, reusable, compostable or removed entirely by the end of 2025.
A statement from the parent company notes that the Jameson portfolio will drive the change with the first removal of gift boxes, which would remove approximately four million pieces of packaging between now and the end of 2025.
The announced move is part of Irish Distillers’ sustainability and responsibility initiative to reduce the environmental impact of brand packaging by reducing waste. This is all part of Pernod Ricard’s strategy of five key principles at each step of the product life cycle … rethink, reduce, reuse, recycle and respect.
The announcement explains that gift packs containing secondary items, such as hip flasks or drinking glasses, will be 100-percent recyclable. And any new products will be put through an eco-design tool to ensure that they are designed according to the key principles of Pernod Ricard’s strategy.
More changes within Irish Distillers’ portfolio will see the removal of gift boxes across Powers, the Spot family and Knappogue Castle portfolio by the end of 2025.
Sustainable changes are already happening in other parts of the portfolio.
Midleton Very Rare 2023, which is due for release in February, will come in a new recyclable box instead of the wooden box previously used.
Numbers released by Irish Distillers note that the development of the new paper packaging has reduced fossil fuel emissions by 53%, greenhouse gas emissions by 53% and water usage by 39% across the production life cycle in comparison to the previous wooden packaging.
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Jameson 18 Years was redesigned and comes in a lightweight and fully-recyclable cardboard box with Jameson Bow Street 18 Years due to follow over the next year. Redbreast’s ultra-premium offerings, Redbreast 21 and Redbreast 27, will transition from wood boxes to fully recyclable secondary packaging by the end of 2025.
“Operating and thinking sustainably is not an option, it’s a necessity,” said Nodjame Fouad, chairman and CEO of Irish Distillers. “In recent years, we have made a number of changes across our operations to support our sustainability and responsibility ambitions. We understand that reducing our impact at all stages of our value chain is critical and this includes packaging waste such as cardboard and choosing more sustainable packaging materials.”
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